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Reviewsby Michou Landon, unless otherwise notedReview PolicyMt. Shasta Magazine does not do reviews in-house. If you have a book, CD, DVD or product you would like us to review, you should send two copies. The first is to our editor, who has final approval on all reviews, at Mt Shasta Magazine, POB 1289, Mt. Shasta, CA 96067. The second goes to our reviewer, Michou Landon, PO Box 20391, Boulder, CO 80308-3391. With reviews only, preference is given to advertisers. Those wanting to reprint a review in another publication should contact our editor for approval. There is a small fee involved.
VideoListed Alphabetically Title: Alchemical Healing: Experiences, Insights and Empowerments The Alchemical Healing DVD is a sort of personal salon lecture with Nikki Skully, a shamanic healer in the tradition of Thoth. Skully holds forth, with grounded and bright-eyed enthusiasm, from an inviting, altar-like set of rich reds, earth tones and sacred objects, seated with the belonging of a spot on a leopard. Her garb seems continuous with the set, and is a testimony to her passionate involvement in life and its dance of myriad textures. Speaking as if to a single person, she shares her personal perspective on healing in general, on her work and her own healing from cancer. Interspersed is footage of sacred sites where she has led trainings around the world. She leads the viewer through two powerful healing visualizations, here called "empowerments." While the content and her delivery may seem far-out to viewers who have not walked a way down their own shamanic path, and while to those who have, it may offer little new insight, it is a personal, genuine, inspiring and articulate affirmation of life's mystery and potential. Title: ARTmind: The Healing Power of Sacred Art All in all, this is a remarkable 79 minutes. Alex Grey's metaphysical art is some of the most striking and distinctly recognizable of our era. Most often his work depicts luminous human forms whose transparent skin reveals a dense world of organs, light and (somehow) spirit, both within them and connecting them with all that surrounds them, through radiant mandala of evocative patterns or colors. Whether one appreciates his style from the gut or just from the intellect, one cannot help but recognize a certain genius. The New York Times is quoted on the cover of this DVD: "Grey's vision of a flawed but perfectible mankind stands as an antidote to the cynicism and spiritual malaise prevalent in much contemporary art." In this presentation, Grey speaks to an unseen listener about his own work and history as well as about spiritual and psychedelic experiences which have opened his "doors of perception." As we view the details of his paintings and others', he also discusses the artists and philosophers who most notably influenced him. He draws interesting parallels between the traditional shaman and the transcendental artist, who undertakes a similar journey in translating the indescribable through art, and, in doing so sometimes facilitates awakening and healing of collective consciousness. The piece is admirably and lovingly edited and quite absorbing, despite Grey's sometimes longwinded explanations. It succeeds in illuminating Grey's methods and motivations for portraying or revealing dimensions of life beyond the three normally employed in visual art; it kindles and inspires awareness of that which animates and connects all living beings; and it stokes the viewer's desire to see Grey's work up close and in at least three dimensions. Title: Conversations with God Over 10 years after publication of the globally influential books on which it is based, 2006 saw the release of a film called Conversations With God, now available (and recommended) on DVD. The film does not attempt to simply transcribe the book's dialogues to film — a prospect both impossible far less palatable! Instead we see the themes unfold and clarify through narrative that touchingly recounts author Neale Donald Walsch's own journey to the revelations and publication of the book. The film is mostly flash back; but we meet Walsch first as he speaks to an audience of fans and skeptics once the book's success is established. This introductory scene feels "new-agey" and a little self-congratulatory, despite the pains that have been taken to acknowledge the author's human-ness almost immediately. With this, film risks turning off anyone with suspicion of New Age lingo and platitudes or even just a lack of first hand knowledge of the humbling process the main character (and those of us on similar journeys) has gone through to get here. However, if you can forgive that and stay open, it is a well worthwhile (if occasionally shaky) ride, driven with poignant and remarkable authenticity by Henry Czerny, who plays N.D. Walsch. All the performances are commendably genuine, but the film wouldn't work without Czerny. The lessons and the content presented redeem the characters, the film and the viewer alike. Although the words quoted from the books themselves roll by almost too fast to fully comprehend in the film, the phenomena they describe are far more effectively illustrated in the actions and interactions, thus effectively demonstrating a prominent theme: the importance of walking the talk as best one is able. In fact, in the scenes when the main character is merely speaking the book's content in promotional settings, its living wisdom seems desiccated to glib platitudes. Nonetheless, in one of those scenes, the Walsch character says that we are in conversation with God all the time, in every person, book, radio jingle or event we encounter. The viewer ends up gratefully aware that this film offers a rich moment in that conversation. Title: Dahn Yoga Esssentials My exposure to Dahn Yoga has mostly been second hand. From the reports of a friend and long time student, I knew it to be a simple, grounding, and potentially profound practice; So, I welcomed this opportunity to experience the arc of the practice first hand on this DVD Program. Dahn Hak is an exercise system from Korea. "Dahn" would be the equivalent of Chi, Ki or Prana, while "Hak" would roughly equate to "-ology." And like most Asian body-mind practices, the aim seems to be to awaken, strengthen and lubricate tissues while gathering, circulating, and balancing vital energy in the body. That it does. I'm not a fan of audio-visual workout programs, because I find that following them splits the attention in a way I find dis-integrating. However, simply watching without participating wouldn't give me nearly the true experience, so I bobbed, stretched, and, very importantly in Dahn Hak, smiled along. The workout offers a good challenge, while — as it is easily tailored to the individual — assuring it is out of reach for no one and beneficial to anyone. As one more familiar with a variety of Hatha Yoga, Qi Gong and Tai Chi systems, some of which can get distractingly sophisticated, I found myself (here and there) vexed by an inattention to subtleties in the instruction; and sometimes frustrated by not being able to hear her comments over the rustle of my own movements. Therefore. I sought a more informed opinion as to the quality and efficacy of this program from my friend, a devoted practitioner, who happened to be laid up with a broken leg. I think even just watching it did her wonders. She was very enthusiastic about the authenticity of the presentation and about the North American instructor, Dawn Quaresima, whom she'd never encountered (having studied near exclusively with Koreans). To any concern I voiced (about a relative paucity of breathing or other instruction, for instance) she countered with justifications based in the foundations of the practice, which is generally taught by example, not verbage (especially in America, when the instructor may barely speak English!) thereby preserving against complexity, over intellectualization, etc. She appreciated the Quaresima's ability to bridge the Dahn Way and Western expectations, without compromising the practice. It is the essential simplicity of the practice, combined with the support of group participation that works for her, where more intricate practices did not. Dahn Yoga, like most exercise practices has cumulative benefits. So this DVD will make it available to many more people, who might not have access to a local teacher. Title: Evolve your Brain A two-hour DVD presentation produced in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, is now available in North America, as a relatively concise and digestible summary of the ideas that Dr. Joe Dispenza first offered in What the Bleep..., and then later in a hefty reader also called Evolve Your Brain. For the deliberate and intellectual, the book, with it's more elaborate explications and visual aids, still stands as a solid companion volume. The DVD is handy for those of us with stronger intention than attention, those who tend to absorb material aurally or emotionally better than visually and intellectually, and those of us who get it already, but can often benefit from remembrance and validation. Dr. Dispenza has an a casual and appealing manner as he simplifies complex neuro-behavioral phenomena, examines common factors that stymie humankind in limiting and deleterious patterns, and suggests ways to compassionately cajole our better selves into the driver seat more and more of the time. He offers no magic ticket. He makes it clear it takes fortitude and focus to overcome the momentum of wired-in habits. It takes will, he states more than once, and steady practice. However incremental though, the progress is not only predictable, but possibly unlimited. What he suggests are more than affirmations. These are prayers of the sort prescribed in the writings of Greg Braden and others: Imagining and rehearsing potential desired realities (internal and external) so earnestly, comprehensively, kinesthetically (and repeatedly), that they inevitably progress from thought, through action, to effortless being, transforming our biochemistry and spiritual trajectory along the way. Some might feel that the program could have had more bite or meat, which should entice them to immerse in, and reinforce with, the book. Ultimately, however, no guide can climb the hill for us. Dispenza probably gives us enough to know that the rest is our journey of will, surrender and discovery, another course in miracles. Title: Flow Title: Water Two documentaries have been released this year about H2O, the medium of Life as we know it. Each film, with it's own thematic focus and tone plunges us into remembrance that the phrase Holy Water is tautology. Flow takes a macro view, focusing on keeping planetary water pure and free as a resource, whereas Water starts from the micro view, examining the barely fathomable nature and property of the substance itself, and expanding into the spiritual and environmental phenomena that grow from that. Flow, with its more political tone, carries the ache and urgency of activist appeal without ever spilling irretrievably into shrillness. It focuses on the worldwide trend to treat Water, the planet's own life blood, as a commodity, as well as the grassroots movements to counter this. As each viewer watches from within a sensory soup that is 70-90% water, we are all infused with a new appreciation for water: for its perennial role in our salvation, for human potential, and for its role in the salvation of water. These are indistinguishable. Where there is Water there is life, they say. Where there is life there is hope. Hope Springs Eternal. Water focuses on the substance itself, purporting to be a scientific exploration of this pervasive molecule with miraculous memory. An international array of scientists and philosophers discuss and extrapolate the ramifications of water's capacity to register, to remember, all with which it interacts, for better and for worse. While it seemed a little light on cohesiveness, and while some of the terms used and "facts" and discoveries reference begged for meatier definition, explanation, and citation of origin, the power of the message, the treasure buried in the subject itself, redeems it. It a little clumsily, it points to a universal truth in every beating heart. This film, too, is a call to action and responsibility. Both films inevitably steep us in profoundly spiritual realizations. What we do to and with water, we do to ourselves and everything else. However miraculous and endangered water is, so are we. Each with information that may be new to some, old to others, the two films are thought-provoking and inspiring, ultimately: A cool splash awake from complacency or demoralization, to mindful stewardship and to the interconnectedness of all Life, intelligence, and innocence, for which Water is a universal conductor. DVD Title: Infinity: The Ultimate Trip Of course, exploring any subject of significance in 90 minutes is a humbling exercise, but Infinity? Pure and poignant folly! Such is the condition of human endeavor, always reaching beyond the limits of the mental and physical constraints into realms we somehow know yet don't know how. Infinity: The Ultimate Trip, alas, seems ever so finite. In it, several speakers describe their experience or expertise with what exists beyond standard human life. Danion Brinkley, Renate Dollinger, Alberto Villoldo and Neale Donald Walsch recount their empirical experiences with these "other" realms, each from a slightly different perspective. Gregg Braden, John Holland (a medium), Stanislov Grof, Dzogchen Ponlop, RobertThurman and Brian Weiss back them up with commentary from various scientific and spiritual traditions. All point to the same message: Life and consciousness continue in different states beyond these periods of human of embodiment, and the point of these human lives is to Live them, to love, to grow, and to support others in doing so. The point is to know one's freedom, no matter what the circumstance. Walsch and others report the liberation of realizing that when you cease to fear death, you cease to fear life. And the truth of that is undeniable, always a breath of fresh air. Blessed are those who are granted an experience that dissolves the grip of conditioning to the contrary. Alas, their inspiring accounts cannot convey the full power of their experience for a listener who has no such experience to reference and with which to remember themselves as one with that Infinity. Even though I found a lot of the film's visuals and superimposed images precious and distracting (detracting from, more than supporting, the content) the intention is positive and stories are interesting (if not, for me, as moving as I wished). I hope this film will be inspiring, even revelatory, to may viewers. However, I found it lacking whatever it might have hoped to have to reach across the chasm of "separation" and convince those in doubt or forgetfulness. Film Title: Letting Go — Hale Dwoskin, founder of Sedona Method Amusingly, Letting Go plays a bit like a satsang infomercial. The odd juxtaposition of those concepts makes me smile, and the film did, too. It manages to sum up, and refine into an applicable tool, so many poignant and powerful insights long found in Eastern wisdom traditions (and now in contemplative psychology). The film makes it clear that the work we do letting go of our unhealthy baggage, old wounds and patterns, serves to heal the whole planet. It demonstrates the process of the Sedona Method through footage of workshop participants exploring their compelling issues with the facilitation of beatific and photogenic Sedona Method founder Hale Dwoskin. These scenes, animated with laughter and tears, are interspersed with exposition by Dwoskin and glowing testimonials from participants about the transformational impact of the Sedona Method on their lives and the lives of those with whom they interact. There is plenty about the Sedona Method on line. It is a disarmingly simple process, and, potentially, very effective. The film conveys the skeletal steps of the method, and demonstrates them in action, but the process is most powerful when practiced for a while on one's own. From a filmic standpoint, I am not a fan of the style employed in this and many new films of this kind, and in media in general: all quick cuts and perpetually moving camera. It is an insidious tool for manipulating the nervous system. Here, however, I'll assume it was just an unfortunate and naive attempt to follow fashion. Another vexing trend is to film the speaker talking while facing way off to the side (not just to someone beside the camera). Call me a purist, but I've never found that anything but ridiculous and distracting, almost dissociated. All that said, the little film has much merit, presenting the Sedona Method in a way that is accessible to audiences of varying degrees of evolution or psychological savvy. May it reach those audiences and plant enduring and viable seeds of healing. We are ready. The planet is ready. DVD Title: Title: Qi Workout AM/PM While I suspect purists could find objections, and I, myself, was dubious about this program when the DVD arrived, I have to say I found Lee Holden's Qi Workout AM/PM quite effective. Although he apparently has some renown, I was not familiar with Holden. He has a quiet, youthful and serene countenance, a strong, easy-going, sincere presence; and he exudes an affably quiet confidence, cultivated, I'm sure, by his own Qi Gong practice. Hence, he felt no need to feign authenticity by decking out the set and his wardrobe in a cliched vocabulary of trappings from Qi Gong's home culture. The set is designed to honor the Elements, so fundamental to Traditional Chinese Medicine, but in a fresh and modern way. The more contemporary presentation make the practice more approachable for folks without particular affinity for things Asian or previous experience with Qi Gong. The program contains an energizing practice meant to be undertaken in the morning (AM), and an evening practice tailored to balance and move tensions and promote more healthful rest (PM). Although an articulate introduction for each session provides some general pointers, Holden doesn't spend a lot of breath on precise hand-positionings or subtleties of alignment; he clearly prefers to let the experience and flow of the practice itself awaken the practitioner's own wisdom and refinement. This, over all, is probably a good call; the practice seems safe, straightforward and balanced. It seems to flow well without his overloading our mental faculties with precautions and information. However, having had some experience with Tai Chi and Qi Gong, I can't estimate how my experience will differ from a beginner's. Holden mentioned nothing about protecting the knees, for example, which can be vulnerable to prolonged, uneducated martial arts practice. Neither the AM or the PM practices are particularly vigorous, but each is ample to move and balance chi and alter one's state of mind to noticeably supportive effect. Although he doesn't mention it (instead giving the impression in his final words that one might flow right into their day of doing from there), I found that each practice promoted the desire to meditate and integrate for a short while afterward, which I would recommend. This might have been a concession to our active, time-conscious culture, as would be my other objection: insistence on the word "Workout," to which I remain peevishly resistant in association with body-mind practices which were originally meant to cultivate a more grounded and perpetual experience of conscious Being, rather than to be just another ambitious Doing. That said, I can recommend this DVD as a very accessible way to jump-start or diversify to your practice. DVD Title: Soul Masters: Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha Dr. Zhi Gang Sha has been steadily gaining visibility in the past couple of years, attracting a devoted following of talented students and healers. Others, who have not resonated with his approach, vocabulary or public presentation, are encouraged to give a second look in the form of this refreshingly affecting documentary on Dr. Sha and his own Master, Dr. Zhi Chen Guo. The program follows students of Master Sha to the clinic of his renowned teacher, Master Guo, who was recognized for his critical contribution to containing the SARS epidemic. After watching him and some of his grateful patients, anyone with chronic illness may be galvanized to find their way to his doors. In addition to their commonalities, the film also demonstrates the distinctions of emphasis in the work of the two doctors, who are both Qi Gong masters and accomplished Medical Doctors. While the film touches on what some might find quite esoteric stuff, it is presented to be accessible, even intriguing, to the relatively uninitiated, and it is a film made to be shared. Title: Sound Yoga/Nada Yoga: The Healing Power of Sacred Sound In this program, rare and respected Western and female authority Shanti Shivani presents some fundamentals of Nada Yoga, the Sound Yoga from the Hindu or Vedic tradition. Shivani reminds us that Greek musicology is suspected to have come from Indian music culture. This fact, and the experience of participating in the simple and powerful principles, toning, and ragas she presents, generate a powerful felt sense of the universality, profound creativity and transformational potential of sound, when generated and sculpted with mindfulness and pureness of heart. Shivani, adorned in a yellow sari, sits with radiant grace and gentle authority amid a sumptuously dressed set and guides us through exercises of increasing complexity, doing so with pacing and repetition sufficient to promote quite a stirring personal experience. This is just a taste and yet it feels like a substantial immersion into a marvelous, mystical, nearly forgotten world. The presentation both whets the appetite for more and makes clear that even these few offerings warrant time, respect and surrender to fully explore and master. Film Title: WAKE UP More documentary than anything else, Wake Up follows Jonas Elrod, a 30-something everyman, on a journey — deep and far-flung — to understand what has happened to him. Jonas woke up one day suddenly able to see energies and entities optically invisible to most of us. Having a Southern Protestant background as his main cultural reference, he's admittedly more than a little "freaked out" by this development. When we join him — apparently a few years into his journey already — he's still very resistant to the "new-age" realm, of which he speaks in suspicious (when not contemptuous) tones, even while conceding to the validity of some of it. This makes the revelatory journey that we walk with him that much more convincing and poignant, as we watch him open to ever broadening and deepening truths. He visits doctors, healers, researchers and scientists, shamans and even the Ramtha School of Enlightenment for answers. He undergoes first medical tests and then vision quest. Like many of us who have found ourselves on a similar journey of inquiry, he finds that the questions multiply with each answer, and the mind's questions can never be put to bed, but can, ultimately, teach one to rest in something far greater than pat answers. Jonas is not alone on this journey, and as his exploration deepens, so must his skeptical but devoted girlfriend's. Along their travels together, they find themselves less and less "alone," and their experience less and less random. It's a beautiful, unhurried film, dramatic in its implications, yet moving in its very unpretentiousness. The multi-layered messages of Jonas' quest are reinforced with commentary by various articulate authorities — some recognizable, some less renowned. (The list of credited luminaries appearing in the credits but not on screen is far longer and almost more impressive.) One can't really do justice to the film's merits with the few words in a synoptic review, just as none of us can really capture the miraculous mystery revealing itself to us here with our paltry and pretentious explanations. Wake Up can be watched or purchased on line at www.wakeupthefilm.com. Very inspiring; it's a keeper. Title: Yoga of Light: Meditations, Mudras and Expressions of the Divine Feminine Teacher, performer and author Sharron Rose decorated the set for all four Sacred Mysteries Presentations reviewed here, using the same basic, rich red and yellow curtain, carpets and cushions, arrayed with objects evocative of each presentation's unique themes. Rose herself is the presenter of Yoga of Light, a series of visualizations to activate and empower the Divine Feminine within us all. Her voiceover guides the viewer through a performance of movements while the camera records her demonstrating these with silent vivacity. Her narration is lavish poetic imagery, and her portrayal is an enticing dance of torso, hands, head and eyes (even as she remains seated in a wakeful, grounded posture reminiscent of Goddess Statuary from many cultures). Visualizations have their limitation, and these are no exception. Their efficacy depends greatly on the participant's capacity and willingness to surrender body and mind into the experience. That said, some of the imagery and movements can be disarmingly effective. Just watching Rose's performance — a priestess embodying the Goddess — is compelling and alone lights a fire within the viewer. However , in this way, the program divides the attention. The viewer is well advised to take in that performance by itself once before participating; for to fully own, embody and express as she directs often requires disregarding the visuals on the screen and harvesting that which is within. When one can't connect personally to that which she describes, however, her example is effective and inspiring, and invokes the way women have learned these arts originally, through observation and participation with seasoned practitioners, in which the juicy light of the Feminine was freely flowing. Title: The Yoga of Sacred Song and Chant Happy news: Our old friends Deva Premal and Miten have done it again. If your once-transporting copies of their past releases had become a little tired and fallen off rotation for recharge, let them rest as long as they need. This new one can take it from here! In concert here, with the breath and presence of Mt. Shasta's fond friend (and Krishna incarnate) Manose on Bansuri flute adding inspiration and an otherworldly depth, the trio blesses us with a song cycle that includes many newer selections, and infuses some of their standards with pristine new heart and life. The set includes both a DVD and a CD of material recorded live in Byron Bay, Australia, in 2008. The flavor and song list of the CD and the DVD are not identical, however, and each is effective in a slightly different way. A caption on one panel of the packaging reads Front Row Tickets: Listen with Headphones. This is especially true for the CD, which seems to enhance intimacy with the Silence within oneself. The DVD, by engaging the visual sense; by emphasizing more human/five-senses interaction among DVD viewer, the musicians and their concert audience; and by including more humor, promotes a more communal expanse into the Silence, melting all hearts into the one Heart. This is, indeed, the effect of their "concerts." The CD is a soothing, nourishing and expansive experience in remembrance. The DVD is two-hours long, but it builds beautifully all the way through the final, masterful crescendo of the heart-melting favorite "So Much Magnificence," which so effectively closes their shows. It seems to saturate and seal every participant in the bath of love, wholeness and equanimity. For this reason, the DVD program's little postscript of the Moola Mantra on its heels is almost vexing. As powerful as Deva's version of this mantra is, here its placement gave the effect on an entranced viewer of someone turning on the lights just a little prematurely after deep meditation. In general, the camera work unobtrusively supports the power, grace and flow of the performance. Only occasionally during double exposures used for effect, do these superimpositions become obtuse or distracting, as one is drawn into identifying the individual images. A booklet of liner notes includes lyrics and translations for the songs and mantras, and although most might be recognized as Sanskrit, English or Tibetan, indication of the original language of each would have been welcome. These are small, forgivable wrinkles in a sumptuous tapestry which will be a treasure for anyone who has never had the pleasure of experiencing a live SatSang with Deva Premal, Miten and Manose; it is equally that, however, for those of us who have had the pleasure, until we can again, and beyond.
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